if she'd been covered with glitter

[maleficum]

Comments

[supertardiness]

["Of course." She holds out the phone to him and gives him a look because he is being a bit immature about this, and no amount of puppy dog eyes is going to sway her, so he sighs, before taking the phone from her and placing it to his ear.]

Hi, Oliver. What's up?

[kapiushon]

( He of all people understands protecting his children, but aren't they all long past lying to each other to protect them? )

Barry. Would you like to explain in your own words?

( Before he goes off on you, maybe you can justify it. It's not like Oliver doesn't understand. But he doesn't have to like it. )

[supertardiness]

[Barry rubs his forehead as he tries to figure out how best to go about this.]

I made a judgement call based on information that I had at the time. You made judgement calls just like it all the time.

[Maybe not directly to him, but Oliver has a long sordid history of deciding what information other people did and didn't need to know.]

And I was told that if you did remember, there could be side effects, so I thought it would be better if you didn't know. I didn't expect that twenty years later some weird mystical fluke would make Mia remember.

[kapiushon]

( He heard - or he can picture the side effects Barry is talking about, but what he really hears right now is that Barry thought better. )

She remembers two whole timelines. She told you about her slaying?

( She told her uncle Barry first, not him. That smarts. )

[supertardiness]

Yeah, we talked about it when she was here on her way from New Orleans. For what it's worth, William told me first.

[Meaning William was actually the first to know, but he doesn't think that that would bother Oliver as much.]

I didn't know where she was while she was gone.

[kapiushon]

I'm not saying that. She's my daughter, of course she can keep herself hidden. But, I don't have to like her hiding a part of herself from me and you helping, Barry.

( Because it feels that black and white. )

[supertardiness]

Even if it was for your own good?

[And because he can't help but worry, he has to ask:]

Are you having any trouble? Break-through memories? Anything ... weird?

[kapiushon]

Other than my newly installed revolving front door of guests? No.

( But, that lands, because he thinks he gets it now. )

Mia when she was called?

[supertardiness]

That's what she said. I've been asking around -

[And by asking he means he called Ray Palmer and asked to talk to his wife.]

- And apparently when Slayers are called they get memories and instincts from all the previous Slayers get shoved in there. So I talked to J'onn and he said that shuffling things around in that way could have knocked some things she wasn't supposed to remember loose.

[kapiushon]

Across universes. Should we be worried? Could there be - consequences?

( Barry was so worried about him, why shouldn't they be worried about Mia? )

[supertardiness]

Maybe?

[Barry doesn't have a definitive answer to that. Mia was only a year old during Crisis so he wasn't exactly warned to worry about her memories being effected. He was given a real warning about Oliver though.]

Do you want me to see if J'onn can come out and check on her?

[kapiushon]

If he can see something we can't, then I want you to make sure my daughter's not walking around with a ticking time bomb in her psyche.

( And then they'll deal with the Oliver of it all. But, Mia is his worry. )

[supertardiness]

Fair enough. I'll see when he can drop by.

[There's a pause.]

How are you doing with all of this? The whole Slayer thing on top of the memories.

[kapiushon]

She's back. Right now, that's all that matters.

( He's glitching at least once a day from it, but his better half is talking him down and through. )

[supertardiness]

Okay.

[... Barry will also have J'onn check on Oliver too.]

I'm sure she'll be okay, man. She's a tough kid.

[kapiushon]

I know. I just wish she didn't inherit everything from me.

( She's living with two versions of herself in her head, ones Oliver can't wrap his head around, he doesn't know enough. Would it help to know? )

[supertardiness]

I think she's got plenty of Felicity in there. It's just not as immediately obvious.

[William carries a lot of the most obvious Felicity qualities, despite not being her biological child, it can be easily overlooked. But Mia has Felicity's compassion, her cleverness - even her loyalty. She is, in a lot of ways, a fairly even blend of both her parents.]

And I think we like to forget sometimes that Felicity got herself into her fair share of trouble.

[kapiushon]

She did get herself into trouble.

( Quite a few times. Stuck her nose in things, went off on her own, tried to fix things when she could. And held her own sense of guilt, too. He and Felicity really were birds of a feather when they finally found their way to one another, after the drama and sudden kids and ex-cop boyfriends. )

[supertardiness]

Yeah, she did. And got us out of our fair share.

[There's a small pause, because it never doesn't hurt.]

I miss her.

[kapiushon]

Me too, Barry.

( For a long time, they were star-crossed. But, Oliver has lost people he loved before. Now, he makes space for them inside his heart and his memories. Laurel helped him with that. )

I came in hot, didn't I?

( It involved his kids. )

Tell Iris I'll curb my attitude next time.

[supertardiness]

I'm sure she will appreciate it.

[Iris is not as scared of Oliver as Barry is.]

She also probably thinks I should just suck it up when you're mad at me because I probably did something to earn it.

[kapiushon]

Probably. Tell her the truth. You did what you thought was right.

( He might do the same. )

[supertardiness]

I'll do that. And if you need me for anything, all you have to do is call.

[Deep breath, and his phone buzzes in his ear, which he pauses to check.]

J'onn texted me back. He'll be up to check on Mia in a couple days.

[kapiushon]

Thanks, Barry.

( He really turned around the berating, didn't he. He can do this being friend's thing. )

[supertardiness]

Anytime, Oliver.

[And with that he will hang up and go back to spending quality time with his wife.]